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MG TD TF 1500 - TD Bonnet Fit

The trailing edge of the upper bonnet panels on my '53 TD that I bought mid restoration are not striaght. They are wavy and at the rear outside corner they actually appear cut away, leaving an even bigger gap from the tub. Please see the picture attached. Also, the front section does not fit tightly around the nose. Can these be bad aftermatket panels? Should I attempt to grind them square and add material to the corners, or just start looking for replacements?

Wondering if anyone else experienced this before.
Thanks.
Mark


MJ Rotsky

You may be able to carefully MIG or TIG weld a small piece in there. The other option would be to carefully file the curves to make it look straight,and take up the gap with the rubber piece.
-David
D. Sander

In agreement with David. The front fit against the radiator shell can be adjusted by adjusting the turnbuckle and moving the top of the radiator/shell backwards or forewards. You may still need to trim/fit. The edge will still have some curve in it, but not the irregualar scooped out area yours have. To the best of my knowledge, these panels have never been reproduced. Legend has it that there was a guy on the MG assembly line with a pair of tin snips and files that adjusted each bonnet panel to fit. If this is true, pretty much no two panels will be the same. Really take your time and get this right, as it is totally visible.If you sight straight down my bonnet side panels, they are very curved. But you don't notice it at all looking at the car, etc. George
George Butz

George,
No problem getting the front-back dimension to fit using the radiator shell. My problem with the front is that the panels extend out to the sides rather than wrapping tightly to the shell.

To the trailing edge, It may be best to grind down the long edges to get it closer, but adding metal to the corners will be the big challange.
Mark
MJ Rotsky

How about a picture so I can see how much?
George Butz

George,
Will take a picture tonight and send tomorrow.
Mark
MJ Rotsky

I have noticed on a lot of cars that some PDO had cut the edge to make it fit when redoing the car at some point. We have discussed this any number of times on cars in our club. I think it was common to cut to fit.
Tom Maine (TD8105)

My car was apparently done in the manner Tom described. The fix was to have a very long, thin, triangular strip of the same thickness of metal welded to the offending edge and refit it from there. It was a PITA but it turned out like us picky types would want.
Jim Merz

OK, my computer has recovered. I attached a picture of the front of the bonnet on the shell. It doesn't look that bad here, but the downward bend does not start until it is beyond where the shell starts to curve, and then the radius in the bonnet is tighter. Just doesn't sit right. I know, I need to play with it, but again, I'm wondering if this is uncommon.

Mark


Mark Rotsky

Mark.

Don't mean to imply you have not checked these, but do you have the spacers under your radiator? And, have you double checked that your radiator mounting plate is not on backwards? If these are incorrect, the front of the hood will not fit.

This will not take care of the issue with the back, it really does look like someone did something to that. Adding metal may be the best fix. If your not comfortable with a mig welder, a shop should be able to tack on a similar thickness piece to get the edge straight again.
Bruce Cunha

Mark, I would check that you have both the inner and outer hood striip supports installed. Also consider placing the rubber radiator shell lacing under the parts. Coulkd the flange of the radiator shell be bent downwards in this mounting area? It may not be that the hood top panels have the wrong radius but that the problem lies with the center mouting being too low.
Jim Merz

Mark,
I think Jim has suggested the answer to your problem at the rad. I notice in the picture, you do not have the centre strip [part #7] in place. This along with the inner support [part #9] will raise it up, and should help the fit.

George
George Raham [TD4224]

Mark. Good day to you.
I can't see that the 2 top panels are locked
together with the center hinge)strip.
Do that and put on the rubberstrips before you start reshaping the panels. Are you sure this bonnet is from the same car?.
You WILL get this wright in the end. Take your time

Thoralf. Norway TD 4490
Thoralf Sorensen (TD4490)

The guys are right on. I bet your sheetmetal is fine. George
George Butz

Gents,
Very interesting comments about having the bonnet corectly mounted to the car. The attached picture better represents what the car looks like as far as body panels are concerned. This is basically how I bought it. I've just been laying panels on to see how they fit and the bonnet never looked right. Might be a good idea to assemble all 4 bonnet panels together and prop the cebter supports in place to see how it really fits. That might just take care of the issue with the front.

Also you should know that I myself have not taken the radiator or shell off the car, but I can easily move it fore and aft. In fact, based on various discussions here I've been doing that, and will now be moving it aft once I make the cut to the new scuttle gasket as suggested in another thread in this forum.

As for the back side of the bonnet top, I'll be looking into the pieces of metal I have laying around to see what I can weld on to those weird corners. I'm a beginner MIG welder, but a good grinder. I have no idea whether these panels were original to this car, but I'll make them fit. I believe the correct technical term for this is "Fettling"?
Mark


Mark Rotsky

Mark.

One safety recommendation. Take off the headlight hanger bars. They snap off unbelievably easily. Any sight sideways pressure will break the bolt wing off. One of those been there, done that things.

Bruce Cunha

Mark, dont be in a hurry to start welding. You might find later as you begin to get things tied down that the edges are not as bad as it would seem. The rear rubber strip should be moved around prior to anchoring to the wood and will cover a lot of out of tolerance type mistakes. You may even wind up triming that high spot I see in your picture. Patience.
Jim Merz

Thanks Jim,
I was only thinking of welding those lower corners, and I'll probably only grind down the high spots a bit.
Mark
Mark Rotsky

Make sure you test-fit with the rubber strip first. That raises the panel up quite a bit, and that would close the gap at the lower edge. Have to assemble with the sides also.
George Butz

I did play around with including the center hood hinge and it does seem to make a positive difference up front. One problem though - what screws should be used to hold the center hinge support onto the radiator shell? Mine has round head screws and the edges of the bonnets that sit over them are lifted and cracked there. More welding to do. But if I could lift the support just a bit and use lower profile screws, I might just have it.

Oh, and Bruce, I took the headlight hangers off. Good call. Thanks.
Mark
Mark Rotsky

Mark, where are you in Mass? I'm in Plymouth. Bud
Bud Krueger

Bud,
I'm in Somerset.
Mark
Mark Rotsky

Just down the road apiece. East TD trip (in decent weather). If you want to send me your address/ phone number (off forum), maybe I can take a spin down and let you have a look at Lazarus (my '52TD).
Oh, the answer to your last question is that the screws are flatheads. I'll try to get an image for you. Bud
Bud Krueger

This thread was discussed between 25/01/2012 and 31/01/2012

MG TD TF 1500 index

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